Earth Sunday/Third Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2026
Faith Okemos
I Peter 1:17-23, Psalm 104, Romans 8:18-27, Luke 24:13-35
Because the World Is About to Turn
My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great, and my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to the ones who wait. You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight, and my weakness you did not spurn, so from east to west shall my name be blest. Could the world be about to turn? My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.
From the halls of power to the fortress tower, not a stone will be left on stone. Let the king beware for your justice tears every tyrant from his throne. The hungry poor shall weep no more, for the food they can never earn; there are tables spread, every mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn… ELW 723
When Victor Orban, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, was soundly defeated a week ago today, it did seem another sign that our world was about to turn. Increasingly throughout the world more and more nations have been led by far-right dictators. They and their cronies have amassed for themselves enormous wealth at the expense of the health and well-being of those citizens they were elected to lead and of the Earth itself. But on this Earth Sunday 2026, we see signs of hope, signs of resurrection that God is birthing in the hearts and actions of millions of people throughout the world, including millions in our own country…Signs of hope and resurrection through the forthright words of religious leaders like our own Bishop Julie and like Pope Leo.
Could it be that the world is about to turn? I think of all the money given in recent weeks (including from us) to fully fund the purchase and installation of a solar array, a project co-sponsored by Michigan Interfaith Power and Light for a Habitat for Humanity home near Sparrow Hospital, now a home for adults with autism and for their support staff, a home that will receive much of its power directly from the sun.
This “great turning” looks like the 900 people (including several of us from Faith) who journeyed from Pilgrim Congregational Church on Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol four Sundays ago, pledging anew to see Jesus in feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and welcoming the stranger.
In a book titled Active Hope, the authors share this poem about grace and trust and courage in a world about to turn: When you act on behalf of something greater than yourself, you begin to feel it acting through you with a power greater than you own.
This is grace.
Today, as we take risks for the something greater than our separate, individual lives, we are feeling graced by other beings and by Earth itself.
Those with whom and on whose behalf we act give us strength and eloquence and staying power we didn’t know we had.
We just need to practice knowing that and remembering that we are sustained by each other in the web of life. Our true power comes as a gift, like grace, because in truth it is sustained by others.
If we practice drawing on the wisdom and beauty and strengths of our fellow humans and our fellow species, we can go into any situation and trust that the courage and intelligence required will be supplied.
In our beautiful gospel for today (a favorite of Pastor Megan’s), Jesus our risen Lord and a “fellow human,” walks with Cleopas and another disciple (likely his wife, one of the Mary’s who followed Jesus on his earthly journey), albeit incognito, unrecognized… until in their home Jesus takes and blesses and breaks and gives them the bread at supper in their home.
A word I’ve been living with all this past week is a Greek word, panentheism, that literally means “all in God, God in all.” I thought of these words in Ephesians 4: There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
Panentheism, all in God, God in all. For me this radically changes everything and everyone I see. When I look at Ray and Tabitha and each of you… and when I look at the daffodils in our backyard, or when I look at the food and juice or coffee I will drink after worship, I see God, I see Jesus!
I saw God when I was with Ledith on Thursday evening. Ledith, long-time member of Faith and beloved child of God, is now at the precipice of her death. When we softly sang together a verse of “Holy, Holy, Holy” and of “Beautiful Savior” and her favorite, all the verses of “How Great Thou Art,” I saw God.
What a difference it makes when you and I look at any and all of the peoples and creatures of the Earth, all the vast and varied combinations of elements and molecules that comprise our common home. Above all, through all, and in all is our crucified and risen Lord and God. How could we not cherish and love and respect all of it? How could we not think twice about trashing or misusing or exploiting any of it when we know that Jesus is in it?
So important that together we think and celebrate that Greek word, panentheism, all in God, God in all, God in everything. But so important too that we mourn creation’s brokenness together with God and with each other…
If we felt the pain of loss each time an ecosystem was destroyed, a species wiped out, or a child killed by war or starvation, we wouldn’t be able to continue living the way we do. It would tear us apart inside…By speaking our concerns and giving voice to our feelings [to each other], we make them more visible not just to others but also to ourselves. The more we draw issues into the open, the more inclined we become to tackle them…Rather than attempting to fix feelings of distress, we accept their validity and significance. Doing this is in itself an act for the Great Turning.
Active Hope, page 77
And these words from Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
[Jesus’] supreme work is to reconcile us to God and to one another and, indeed, to all of God’s creation. It is possible to have a new kind of world where there will be more compassion, more gentleness, more caring, more laughter, more joy for all of God’s creation, because that is God’s dream. And God says, “Help me. Help me, help me realize my dream.”
And from Jim Antel, a public theologian and pastor in the United Church of Christ: God is calling all of us to unleash our imaginations, unmuzzle our mouths, unbind our hands, unshackle our feet, and open our wallets. Each of us must use our unique God-given gifts to hasten the day when each human heart is governed not by grief but by hope…not by selfishness but by sharing. Yes—God still has a dream…As we live into God’s dream, we will rediscover who we truly are and all of creation will be singing. Climate Church, Climate World, pages 168-169
Because the world is about to turn… St. Peter writes, Make your minds ready for action… Put your hope in nothing but the grace that will be given when Jesus Christ is revealed. Be children of obedience…It is through Christ that you are believers in God, the God who raised Jesus from the dead into glory…Therefore, love one another constantly, from the heart. [I Peter 1:13,21-22]
By the grace and great mercy of God we are born anew every day into a living hope because Jesus lives “above all and through all and in all.” Jesus walks with us. Everything changes when you and I see him in every thing and every one. Therefore, love one another constantly, from the depths of your hearts.
Daniel Erlander in a little book entitled Baptized, We Live, writes, “The ruler of the universe hides himself in the common, in the stuff of this earth. God lives in creation; he lives in all… Here is God… in the home, in the forest, in the face of a child, in the sunset, in human love, in the enemy, in the mountains, in the cry of the poor, in the sea, in the sharing of food, in the prison, in the sunshine, in the hospital, in the rain, in the aged, in governments, in the dying, in the air, in the broken home, in the stranger, in outer space, in the third world, in death.” Daniel writes: Because of Jesus, we see God in all, weeping where there is pain and alienation, rejoicing where there is wholeness and love.
So, because God in Jesus is with and in us and all of creation, albeit often incognito as on the road to Emmaus, we may dare to believe that the world is about to turn, that other powerful autocrats and dictators besides Prime Minister Orban will soon be brought low. We can live with hope that soon compassion and respect and a just peace will rise up, albeit imperfectly, in the Middle East, in Eastern Europe, in Africa, and, yes, in our own country.
Imagine that one day, maybe 50 or 60 years from now, our descendants asked us three questions about when in our day there was a great turning:
- “Ancestor, I hear stories about the period you are living in, with wars and preparations for wars, with some people absurdly rich while huge numbers are starving and homeless, with poisons in the seas and soil and air, and with the dying of many species. We are still experiencing the effects of all that. What was it like for you to live with this knowledge?”
- “Ancestor, we have songs and stories that tell of what you and your friends did back then for the Great Turning… You must have felt lonely and confused at times, especially at the beginning. What were some of the first steps you took?”
- “Ancestor, I know you didn’t stop with those first actions on behalf of life on Earth. Where did you find the strength to continue working so hard, despite all the obstacles and discouragement?” Active Hope, page 155
Let us sing “God Bestows on Every Sense,” a song of hope and of “signs of what the earth will be.” Amen.